World Science Festival: Live Webcast Guide

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NEW YORK — Leading scientists, artists and thinkers from around
the world will convene here this week for the World Science
Festival, but even if you can't make it to the Big Apple for the
five-day event, you can still catch all the action live online.

Since it began in 2008, the annual World Science Festival has
drawn more than a million people to more than 300 programs
throughout New York City, festival representatives said.
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"This year's programming, with an emphasis not only on main stage
events but also on more intimate gatherings involving great
scientists and general audiences of all ages, brings cutting-edge
science directly to the public," Tracy Day, the festival's CEO
and co-founder, said in a statement.

The festival kicks off tonight with a theatrical exploration of
Albert Einstein's life. Actors Paul Rudd and Cynthia Nixon
will perform in Alan Alda's "Dear Albert," a reading of the
letters by the world's most famous scientist to his wives and
other women. After the performance, Alda and Brian Greene, a
physicist at Columbia University and co-founder of the World
Science Festival, will lead an onstage discussion about Einstein.

Tomorrow morning (May 29), the biennial $1 million Kavli Prizes,
awarded for major advances in the fields of astrophysics,
nanoscience and neuroscience, will be announced via a
live webcast from the Norwegian Academy of Science and
Letters in Oslo, Norway.

You can also view planet Earth projected and animated on a giant,
suspended globe in Gould Plaza. Watch wild weather and see movies
about space, tsunamis and waterfalls on the massive orb, as part
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "Science
on a Sphere." The event is free and open to the public.

In the evening, experts in neuroscience, engineering and biology
will explore breakthroughs in the field of brain-machine
interfaces, and ask whether scientists are any closer to
realizing the sci-fi dream of being able to upload information
from a computer to the brain, like in the film "The Matrix."
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Also tomorrow evening, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
will host a science, space and astronomy night, with free entry
to special NASA exhibits, stargazing with astronomers and more. A
ticketed screening of the film "Gravity" will take place under
the space shuttle Enterprise at the Intrepid, followed by a
discussion with astronauts Sandra Magnus and John Grunsfeld.

On Friday (May 30), a panel of researchers will debate the recent
findings of
gravitational ripples from the Big Bang, one of the year's
biggest scientific developments, if it's confirmed. But some
scientists suggest the champagne may have been popped
prematurely. Prominent theorists and members of the research team
will take part in the conversation.

During the day, a scale replica of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko,
which will be visited by the European Space Agency's Rosetta
spacecraft this summer, will be on display at Brooklyn Bridge
Park.

In the evening, a biophysicist and pastry chef will meet to
explore the physics of pie, at the Momofuku Milk Bar bakery in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Experts will explain the secrets of good
pie, from gluten-protein networks to polymorphic phase behavior.
Naturally, tasting is involved.

Mary-Claire King of the University of Washington, the geneticist
who discovered the breast cancer gene BRCA1, will speak on
Saturday (May 31).

Saturday evening, astrophiles can bring their telescopes for an
evening of urban stargazing (weather permitting) and live music
under the Brooklyn Bridge.

On Sunday (June 1), hundreds of thousands of people will convene
in Washington Square Park for the Ultimate Science Street Fair,
featuring robots, brain games and stage performances.